By John Eakins
On Sunday night Luis Suárez was awarded the 2013-2014 PFA Players' Player of the Year award for his displays and goal scoring exploits for Liverpool this season. The winner is chosen by a vote amongst the members of the players’ union, the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA). If you were asked to predict a winner at the start of the season, you probably would in the first instance suggest a player who will be part of the same year’s championship winning team. However looking back on previous winners of this prize it is interesting that many of them end up not being part of the same year’s championship winning team. Since it was first awarded in the 1973-1974 season only 18 out of the 40 winners have come from the team that has also won the top tier of the English league that year – see details below.
There are a couple of ways of trying to explain this. One limitation of the voting process that is often cited is the fact that players vote around the end of February/start of March before a substantial part of the season has been completed. Thus the form of the team that the player is part of (or even the player himself) could decline before the season finishes. Another explanation is that a player on a championship winning team may not stand out as much relative to a player on a team that finishes second, third, fourth etc., simply because they are part of a better all-round team. In other words the amount of goals scored, assists, passes, tackles, etc., are spread out across the team rather than one individual standing out.
However I wonder do players have a tendency to vote for a player who they think is not likely to be part of the championship winning team. As I already said above, one would initially think of players from the team that are favourites to win the league. But for those voting, perhaps they think that the prize of winning the league is enough glory and the PFA award is therefore recognition for the best player outside of the likely winners of the league. I would suggest that this is more likely to occur in seasons when there isn’t an outstanding candidate. Other than the data above it is hard to test this theory but I’m sure Luis Suárez and Liverpool don’t want the trend to continue.
However I wonder do players have a tendency to vote for a player who they think is not likely to be part of the championship winning team. As I already said above, one would initially think of players from the team that are favourites to win the league. But for those voting, perhaps they think that the prize of winning the league is enough glory and the PFA award is therefore recognition for the best player outside of the likely winners of the league. I would suggest that this is more likely to occur in seasons when there isn’t an outstanding candidate. Other than the data above it is hard to test this theory but I’m sure Luis Suárez and Liverpool don’t want the trend to continue.
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